The Contradiction of Silence and Disclosure: Supporting Undocumented Students’ Transition to College amidst Legal Violence

School-based staff, or school agents, possess valuable information and resources needed by undocumented immigrant students to transition to college. Activation of information and resources, however, hinges on undocumented youth disclosing their legal status. Via interviews with 50 school agents in Illinois, this paper examines the challenges they confront in seeking to provide support and resources to undocumented youth. Their experiences reveal that legal violence pervades undocumented students’ transition to college. Legal violence creates a climate of mistrust, making it difficult to identify undocumented students early in their high school years. Conversely, the focus on postsecondary planning in the latter years of high school creates a critical juncture for disclosure, compelling and even forcing disclosure. The paper conceptualizes the tension between disclosure and access to resources as a fundamental contradiction created by legal violence. The contradiction constrains school agents’ ability to support undocumented youth and imbues the process with emotional distress.